Introduction to data visualization
MACS 40700 University of Chicago
Me
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My background
My research interests
Course website
Course website
Course objectives
Understand how the human mind perceives and interprets visual data
Distinguish different types of visualizations and identify appropriate use cases
Evaluate visualizations’ interpretability based on experimental design
Apply data visualization methods using a reproducible workflow
Purpose of visualizations
Any kind of visual representation of information designed to enable communication, analysis, discovery, exploration, etc.
What to communicate
How to communicate
Information visualization
Information visualization
Scientific visualization
Abstract data
Data type
Goals of info viz
Information visualization
Baby Names Popularity - NameVoyager
The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 — 2008
Check your US tax rate for 2012—and every year since 1913
Statistical graphics
Visualize abstract data of a quantitative form
Goals
Scatterplot matricies
Double-time bar charts
Double-time bar charts
Information dashboards
Business/industry
Lots of information
Extremely dense
Student performance
Fitbit
Infographics
Eye-catching
Quickly convey information
Not always accurate
Informative art
Visualizes data in an effort to make visualization ambient or a part of everyday life
Aesthetically pleasing
Practically not useful
Debussy, Clair de lune (piano music)
Dr. John Snow
Charles Minard
Minard’s map of Napoleon’s march on Russia
NYTimes weather summaries
How Much Warmer Was Your City in 2015?
What data is related in the visualization? What are the dimensions/variables?
Approximately how many data points are recorded in the visualization?
What makes this a good/bad visualization?
What story is it conveying?
Basic data structures
Data type
Dataset type
Data types
Dataset types
Tables
Flat table
Each row is an item
Each column is an attribute
Each cell is a value fully specified by the combination of row and column
Multidimensional table
Networks
Trees
Fields
Geometry
Shape of items with explicit spatial positions
0D
1D
2D
3D
Maps
Attribute types
Semantics
Type vs. semantic
Key vs. value